The Good, The Bad, and The Pretty...

Yes I was in bed all day yesterday. No I wasn't sick sick like the poor family was while I was away. I was just totally zoned out and had no appetite. I guess that is the Bad. But hey, it was our day of rest...literally.

My glands are still swollen but at least I am functional today. The Good includes being able to catch the tail end of the superbowl. I really hate that I missed most of it but I think I truly saw the best part. I also hate I missed the commercials and the half time show. The other Good part is that I proceeded this morning in business as usual fashion. Well, business as usual in theory fashion, but today it wasn't theory it was reality. Here it is not even 10:30 yet and I've done everything on my "have to do" list!!!! I still have some on my "nice to do" list but I guess blogging would be on that list.

The Pretty includes how I feel. Usually Mondays are paperwork days, no appointments, no shower, leave on the pjs til noon type of days. But this morning after I got The Elder ready for school, I got ready...fixed my hair, put my face on (mascara and lipgloss and all), got dressed, and tackled the computer like it was a date or something.

Anyhoo, I'm having video conversion issues with the Need for Routine post that I promised everyone but I haven't forgotten. But I'll take a moment now to update everyone on The Teacher's visit.

Again, I have thoroughly convinced everyone that she is a goddess??? Well, she came and sat down and we didn't the normal, what have you implemented and what is working and what needs work, etc. I took an old hand towel from my mom's that was monogrammed and obviously very loved because it was about to fall apart. "Hey, mom, are you attached to this or can I have it?" I gave it to The Elder for his string tick. You could tell even in his emotionless reaction that he was relieved to have something that was OK to pull and break the strings on. So that was a "check" on the review. Unfortunately there are no more string to pull, but The Teacher suggested that I cut the fringe to simulate hair-cutting so he can be desensitized to falling hair. Hmmmm, interesting, though I think I'll pass on that. He actually did great with hair cutting this weekend. I didn't do a whole lot. Just trimmed the ducktail in the back and his bangs. I think if it grows out a little bit his cowlicks won't be such a pain.

Somehow the conversation came up about The Younger and some of the things that I was concerned about and she asked me to going into detail. I did and she sweetly suggested that I call his pediatrician to get a TEIS referral (Early Intervention - I'm not sure what the T and S stand for. My guess is Tennessee and perhaps Services) to get him into OT right away. She is so smart. She said, "There is nothing wrong with what he is doing but if he can get some Early Intervention, he can learn to control himself and learn other boundaries now versus learning them later when there could be worse consequences" (I think she was referring to adolescent behaviors and temptations like teen sex, drugs, etc.). Now The Elder's Psychologist told us to just watch him until he was 4 (some magic age) because much of what he does might be from mimicking his brother, which I totally agree. However, The Youngers Sensory issues are much different than The Elder's. The Elder has predominantly Sensory Aversions, whereas The Younger is Sensory Seeking. This explains alot. I'm not going to be a warrior on this like I was with The Elder because we both agreed that we didn't believe he has autism. But knowing what I know now about myself and my family and likewise about The Hub's and his family, it doesn't hurt to try to do whatever I can to get him help early. I often wonder how I might be different now had Early Intervention existed when i was a kid. My sensory issues can be just as hard to tolerate as The Hub's or The Elder's, and now The Younger's. But I am more confident about him because I was a Sensory Seeker as a little one and enough falling desensitized me. (Of course I was a cheerleader in college and really got hurt before I was desensitized but hey, better late than never.) If he has the special, inexplicable ability that I had to be aware of where you are in space, then falling was nothing to be afraid of (it somehow turned into falling gracefully) . I've never broken a bone in all of my dare devil antics (I've broken other people's bones and burned other people's legs jumping off motorcycles). I have my shared of aversions that bug the mess out of The Hub. Primarily my smell (olfactory - is that right?), texture in foods, and tactile defensiveness. I digress...

So The Teacher was a huge advocate in getting The Younger some help. Hey, anything to make a 2 year old more manageable! HAHAHAHA!

Now for The Elder, he has been constantly amazing me. I can still see his struggles but his ability to handle them has increased so much. You can see his little brain working. He's even joking now. This morning he didn't want to go to school (I'm going to need to find out what this trigger is - The Teacher insists it is normal but I'm ready for it to be booted out of our routine) so I ended up having to pick him up and carrying him to his room. It was actually cute, I had him behind the knees and he was sitting in my arms like he had fallen into the toilet or something. He could only kick his legs from the knee down which were away from my body. Very effective I must say. But we went about the morning routine and he was being defiant the whole time. Finally I said...

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. The easy way is where you get ready by yourself. The hard way is where you have NO CONTROL over getting ready."

"How 'bout........the medium way???"

I didn't know whether to be mad, proud, or burst out laughing!